Global Health Law

Global health and the law.

Pursuing Global Health with Justice: Review of Global Health Law

In 2000, LawrenceGostin published the first edition ofPublic Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint. With that book, which now has a third edition in progress, Gostin sought to ‘explain why public health law is a coherent field, distinct from other intellectual activities at the intersection of health and law’.1 Gostin’s book played a major role in triggering a ‘renaissance’ of public health law, w...

International environmental law and global public health.

The environment continues to be a source of ill-health for many people, particularly in developing countries. International environmental law offers a viable strategy for enhancing public health through the promotion of increased awareness of the linkages between health and environment, mobilization of technical and financial resources, strengthening of research and monitoring, enforcement of h...

Innovative Use of the Law to Address Complex Global Health Problems; Comment on “The Legal Strength of International Health Instruments - What It Brings to Global Health Governance?”

Addressing the increasingly globalised determinants of many important problems affecting human health is a complex task requiring collective action. We suggest that part of the solution to addressing intractable global health issues indeed lies with the role of new legal instruments in the form of globally binding treaties, as described in the recent article of Nikogosian and Kickbusch. However...

Influenza Virus Samples, International Law, and Global Health Diplomacy

Indonesia's decision to withhold samples of avian influenza virus A (H5N1) from the World Health Organization for much of 2007 caused a crisis in global health. The World Health Assembly produced a resolution to try to address the crisis at its May 2007 meeting. I examine how the parties to this controversy used international law in framing and negotiating the dispute. Specifically, I analyze I...